Why it feels like time flew by since the Corona Lockdown started…

… and why you don’t remember much of it.

The quarantine has been going on for a long time. Seven weeks, to be exact. That’s more time than people receive as vacation days each year. I’d like to ask you to now try to compare the Corona quarantine time with all the time off you had in 2019. What feels longer? What do you remember more of?

At this point, we barely make new memories. What do you remember from this quarantine? Toilet paper memes? Zoom conferences? Shows you discovered on Netflix? Sitting at home without other people, chances are, that nothing mind-blowing has happened.

For me, time went by as I was stuck in a routine of Work > Not Work > Sleep > Repeat. Everything got a little stale in the meantime and I couldn’t even laugh at RuPaul’s best wordplays. We’re not writing herstory at the moment, at least I don’t. I’m just sitting at home missing the excitement. There’s barely any left in this rut I’m stuck in.

Our perception of time is deeply connected with our memories. If we make lots and lots of important memories time feels ‘long’ but if there barely aren’t any memories created if feels like time has passed faster. So, even though it feels like this quarantine has been going on forever, many of us will also feel like it’s not that long ago since it started. And remember barely anything as the days blurred together.

It’s a weird conundrum but maybe this way we’re better equipped to endure unbearably boring times like these. I sure do hope that Corona will not be going on forever, otherwise, 2020 is going to feel like a very short year.

Do you feel like the quarantine has been going on forever or that time passed quickly?

BenLeander